Kurt & Courtney

As a hopeless britfreak/anglophile, I am a fan of documentarian Nick Broomfield. However, I have only seen three of his films. For some reason, the majority of his films don't seem to be available for rent.

I enjoyed Kurt & Courtney. The film's hype seemed to laughably imply that 'Courtney did it'!in regards to Kurt's demise. Okay, she does have a slight anger management problem, but that's beside the point.

The implication seemed to be that she hired someone to off Kurt. But, the film goes off in other directions, and outshines the sensationalistic hype.

The low key Broomfield gently and intelligently guides his subjects; they let down their guard; they humorously reveal themselves and their versions of the truth.

At times, Broomfield's films make one feel like a rubbernecker perusing a car accident; like a TV viewer watching America's Most Shocking Videos; sometimes we just cannot help ourselves.

Kurt's tragic life and personal demons are revealed, as are Courtney's. Family, friends, and people in the Seattle grunge music scene are interviewed. A murder plot of sorts is investigated. Courtney's antagonism towards mainstream media is explored.

I found Kurt & Courtney to be fascinating and entertaining.

I heard somewhere that Courtney Love tried like the dickens to get this little documentary banned. If there is no truth to it, why would she care so much? Makes you think...

Nick Bloomfield interviews people a courtroom wouldn't consider reliable witnesses- El Duce, for one- a singer who was one bizarre addict himself. He claims Love offered him $50,000 to kill Cobain. Looking at this guy, you automatically rely on his testimony like your local weather report. Still, it is very interesting that weeks after this interview, El Duce was found dead on the railroad tracks by his home. An investigor who was at Cobain's "suicide" scene claims Cobain had way too much heroin in his system to be coherent enough to pull a trigger on himself with any accuracy. Cobain's Aunt claims the whole conspiracy theory is a load of bunk, and she feels Kurt had suicidal tendencies as well as addictions. Yet most of the people interviewed agree that Courtney was a vindictive slag, jealous of Cobain's success and tried to hitch her wagon to Nirvana's rising star (memories of Courtney and Kurt on the cover of the now defunked "Sassy" magazine, with Courtney trying to portray herself has the Nancy Spungen of the '90's comes to mind). I've never been a big Love or "Hole" fan, mainly because I don't think Love is that talented a musician or singer. I feel she has what they call "delusions of grandure", which is why this documentary, for as shaky as the evidence presented is, makes me wonder if it isn't the naked truth.

I think that this is a very sad movie. It should have been called "Jerry Springer Casting Session with Two Scenes of Courtney Love." Like how bored was Nick Broomfield? I think that he is obsessed with Courtney because he was acting like a stalker and following her around. I wish she would have gotten ahold of him. He totally wussed out several times when he could have talked to her and maybe gotten a real answer for his banal and cliched crapumentary. Instead he just interviewed weirdo after weirdo. He has nothing better to do than trash Courtney Love and blame her for everything. I think it was very funny to watch all the overdramatic people he found for this movie. It was like "Waiting For Guffman Part 2" except "Kurt & Courney" was not intended to be funny and suprisingly no one in the movie worked at a Dairy Queen. He acts like he is horrified of Courtney and we should all be afraid fo her. I think the movie clearly showed that she just wants to put the past in the past and move on with her life without some idiots following her around picketing about her dead husband.

Kurt & Courtney (1998)

*** (out of 4)

Nick Broomfield's controversial documentary on the suicide of Kurt Cobain and the conspiracy theories around whether or not Courtney Love had him murdered. This is an incredibly strange documentary that has "witnesses" that no lawyer in the world would put on the stand but at the same time there's no question that the film will keep you glued to what you're watching. It's hard to say how much truth is found in this documentary or if everything here is nothing more that cruel gossip but I must say that it's rather obvious that Broomfield hates Love. There are a lot of problems with this documentary with the main one being Broomfield's attacks on Love at every chance he gets. It's clear he wants to know whether or not Love killed Cobain but I think there are quite a few cheap shots taken at her. The director is constantly saying how he wanted to use certain music but Love wouldn't allow it. Well, duh. Any music rights owner isn't going to let you freely use something so considering this film ran out of backers it's clear that they wouldn't have had the money to buy the music even if they were for sale. There's an episode at the end when the director could have asked her a question but didn't and instead gets on a stage and does it in public. Another cheap shot. With that said, the murder conspiracy is just something hard to wrap your brain around. Even if it was true, the witnesses here are cracked out heroin addicts so it's really hard to take what they say as the truth. You could argue that Kurt and Courtney were a part of this crowd, which I guess would be fair but I do wonder what motive some of these people had. It's clear that Love's father hates his daughter so his motives are certain. Others claim that they're terrified of Love yet they come out and say she murdered Kurt. No matter what your opinion on the truth is, it's hard to take any real evidence out of this documentary.

Nick Broomfield is a great documentary filmmaker - his pics on Heidi Fleiss & Aileen Wuoronos are especially effective. He was criticized for this film being too one-sided and featuring himself too much. But, as you watch the film, you realize he really had no choice because, everyone (especially people who are pro-Courtney) is terrified of suffering the wrath of Courtney (who is, no matter who you hear from, obviously a violent psychotic) if they speak out in Nick's film. This leaves only people with nothing to lose (addicts, losers, and disgruntled ex-employees) to interview. Thus, most of the footage consists of Broomfield desperately trying to glean ANY information on his chosen subject. What we learn we learn by reading between the lines. For instance, the very fact that Love put pressure on his financers from the very beginning of his filming speaks volumes. If Broomfield didn't set out to lambast her at the start, she certainly helped change his mind quickly. The film does little to clear up the decidedly murky circumstances of Cobain's death (though the guy seemed to be a walking suicidal time-bomb). What it does prove is that Love basically got her claws into Kurt, chewed him up, spit him out, and got his millions - all in a span of about three years! And it's all worth it to see Broomfield call an auditorium full of hypocrites - the ACLU - on the carpet for allowing Love, who regularly makes death threats to journalists, to be their spokesperson for free speech.